Tonight’s session is a low-stakes affair, with only three cocktails on the schedule: the ADONIS, the AFFINITY, and the AFFINITY COCKTAIL. There is port to be purchased and there is dry sherry to be purchased, and once again we are confronted with the utter foolishness of this endeavor. We buy bottle after bottle of obscure…

Previously on the Rituals: We dutifully marched through the ADDINGTON (a nothing drink) and the ADIOS AMIGOS (a worse-than-nothing drink) without feeling any sense of life fulfillment. But we still need to meet the Admiral—or three creepy versions of the Admiral, anyway, like some boozy version of The Prestige. So, like gluttons for punishment, we soldier on to…

Prohibition was a double-edged sword. Organized crime and bootlegging were bad for the United States but they were great for the world of cocktails. Would we have the cocktails we have now if there was no Prohibition? Questionable. If I had a DeLorean that could take me back in time to the days of Prohibition…

If you live in Seattle a craft distillery might not seem like a big deal—there are 24 to choose from. But if you live in Los Angeles, like us, you have nothing—or you had nothing, at least, until 2011 when Greenbar Craft Distillery ended a 95-year spirits-making drought for L.A. by moving downtown. The company’s story reads like a…

I arrive at Brian’s thinking how grateful his wife Amanda must be now that we have finished the cooking and bottling portion of the Rituals (at least for awhile). The ACADIAN MEAD is aging in his closet, sure, but it’s out of sight and out of mind. We’ll be using our homemade ANISETTE today and our DIY CRÈME…

Last week was Negroni week—a week of Negronis, Negroni variations, and charity brought to you by Imbibe and Campari. Bars across the United States that participate in Negroni week donate a portion of their proceeds to a charity of their choice. Negroni week is a wonderful reason to drink up and give back. I recently…

Previously on the Rituals: We rescued the ACADIAN MEADS, made two kinds of ANISETTE DE BORDEAUX, and started the FORBIDDEN FRUIT simulacrum. All five items have been sitting in my closet for a couple of weeks. I stop by every couple of days and swirl around the bits that have settled to the bottom. Somehow this…

Baffled by our mead conundrum, Brian and Eric decide to consult our respective experts: From official The Rituals Consultant, Aunt Marjiann: Hi, at long last, Eric, One excuse for the delay in my reply is that I am flummoxed. I have no good advice to give you, which is a unique experience for me—to have…

The A section of The Complete World Bartender Guide has 113 cocktail recipes, 8 liquors, and 7 punches for a grand total of 134 beverages we need to make and consume. Not every session can be cocktails and fun. Some days we need to make the liquors and punches. This week we have decided to tackle a liqueur…

After spending 3½ weeks working on a movie in New Orleans, I persuaded Brian to let me do a recap of my experiences here—because there were a lot of good ones! During this time I was able to visit 27 establishments; certainly not every bar in New Orleans but a good, obsessive chunk nonetheless. ­ In…

Dear Readers, Lately we’ve accidentally released a couple of posts into the ether and then retracted them soon after. Unfortunately, in e-life you don’t really get do-overs, it seems. Our subscribers immediately received the full text of the article upon publishing even though the article itself isn’t available on the site and comments are disabled…

Today we’ll be making three things from scratch: a homemade CRÈME DE MENTHE for rounding out our absinthe duties, the promisingly innocuous ACAPULCO (next in the A’s), and our ACADIAN MEAD recipe (or non-recipe, depending on how you look at it). But before we can move on to these newest of challenges, Brian and I…

In the world of cocktails there is nothing more Ritualistic than absinthe. After the first session Eric and I are optimistic for the next few drinks in the book, which all con­­tain absinthe. While we are attempting to follow along with the drinks in the book, there are a few we can’t get to because…

On April 5, 2015 at 02:31 PM, Marjiann Moss <xxxx@xxxx.com> wrote: Dearest Eric, This sounds hysterical, and if it works, I’ll be amazed. Yes, I think a quarter recipe sounds about right for a trial. At least at that point, it’s just a few eggs and lemons, not your precious rot-gut rum and, um, rock…

I wake up feeling pretty good today. Feeling pretty good because I had had a few cocktails the night before and I felt better than expected. I make breakfast and tend to some small chores around the house. I keep passing from my kitchen to the bathroom. One of the rooms along that path is the…

Since the first few meetings were consumed with getting the dreaded A-1 PICK-ME-UP off the ground, we are tingly with excitement to get started on the first four cocktails after the A-1: the A.J., the ABBEY, the ABBEY COCKTAIL, and the ABERDEEN ANGUS. We will be mixing, and talking, and consuming, and comparing, and contrasting,…

Brian steers his car into the Whole Foods parking lot and everyone turns to look. Something is wrong with the hubcap on the passenger side—something is smacking around repeatedly down there—and it sounds rather like horse’s hooves. Or coconuts being banged together. So we gallop into our parking space like the cavalry, which is what…

On March 15, 2015, at 7:39 PM, Brian Christie <xxxxxx@xxxxx.com> wrote: Eric- There are 127 drinks in the A chapter of The Complete World Bartender Guide: The Standard Reference to More Than 2,400 Drinks, copyright 1977; two of which are actual boozes you make (ACADIAN MEAD and APRICOT VODKA) and three of which are punches. I’m still in…

The Complete World Bartender Guide, 1993 edition (first published 1977) will be our road map, our Bible, our pole star, our Everything. No glossier, newer, better publication will come before this one. All drinks in the “A” section, from the dubious A-1 Pick Me Up to the formidable Aztec Punch, will be made and consumed,…